In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

It was really interesting and helpful for me to hear and read the reactions from the listeners of the ”Brian Lehrer Show” to my first appearance of the month — even if many of them were skeptical about the topic. 

Although the spectre of having to deal with major disaster is somewhere in most people’s minds, particularly those of us in the New York area, the subject of public emergency preparedness is rarely discussed publicly. So, it was refreshing to get some feedback on air and online in the comments section.

Obviously a handful of calls and commenters is not a scientifically significant sample of public opinion. However, Brian Lehrer’s audience tends to be quite engaged and savvy when it comes to public policy. So, their reactions are instructive.

I thought it might be productive to analyze and address some of the comments as a way to continue a dialogue on the issue.

I completely understand why people are skeptical about preparedness. It seems complex, offputting, time consuming and possibly, worse of all, useless. The concerns raised by listeners are very fair and legitimate. And they need to be addressed if we are to move forward at all in this area. In fact, I got into this subject after 9/11 when my wife asked “what should we be doing” to prepare? One of the biggest shortcomings of the preparedness efforts I found, and many officials would acknowledge this, is that they have not fully addressed the obstacles to preparedness nor been able to fully address the public’s questions and concerns about it. 

At present, there is no one place where a citizen can get his or her specific question answered on emergency preparedness. So, it is not surprising that there would be a lot of misconceptions, confusion, and uncertainty out there. This has contributed to the current situation where much of the public dismisses the whole subject out of hand.

Initially, my objective is less to advocate for preparedness than to help stimulate a public debate on whether we want to be more prepared as a society and, if so, at what level — in time, money, and inconvenience.

My research to date leads me to believe that the U.S. could become a more prepared society in a way most Americans could accept and even embrace. In fact, I would argue preparedness offers us an unique non-partisan and substantive opportunity to bring our country together and strengthen our communities. 

Despite the skepticism from some listeners, I did get a sense that if there was a way for them, their families and the nation to become more prepared in a rational, useful way, they would consider it. But most don’t think it’s really possible and therefore not worth even trying. They well may be right, but I think it is at least worth discussing. 

Let me first address the comments of some of the skeptics (which made up the biggest group) like James who posted on Brian’s comment page at WNYC.org: 

I can think of at least 30 – 50 different types of “emergencies” ranging from a fire in my building to Category 5 hurricane, nuclear attact, Tsunami, biological-chemical warfare attack etc. So, are we to spend time studying all of the MANY terrible possibilities & preparing for them? Is that realistic or useful?

I know exactly what James is talking about, because I am trying to figure out how to write a book that addresses all of those scenarios — not to even mention the ones we cannot even dream up in advance. But the fact we cannot prepare for everything shouldn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare for anything. Rather, we need to be willing to accept a gradual learning curve and look to do things that will help no matter the disaster (and even have positive impact on the community even if nothing ever happens).  

Some commenters were even more dubious about the subject (and the guest!). Such as Robert:

This is like the republican fear tactics around election time. I checked out that page and freaked out. I mean really, what exactly are Mr. Solomon and all those fear mongering folk think is going to happen! Yeah, we should prepare ourselves but we shouldn’t become paranoid over it and spend every minute thinking about it because we don’t know what EXACTLY is coming or when and what will be left after!!!

I have no idea whether we are going to have any more major disasters or not. But most people — 77% of New Yorkers in a recent OEM survey — believe that another terrorist attack is coming. Further, 91% of Americans live in an area where a major man-made or natural disaster is likely. I am just raising the idea that it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to prepare for that possibility. Similarly, we buy insurance and do fire drills though it is unlikely most of us are going to experience a major home or school fire. 

A similarly skeptical Chestinee raised a fair question:

…as for go bags – how ridiculous is that – who on earth is going to be home when it’s time to go?

GeeGee agreed:

Yep, I’m with Robert. It is all fear tactics DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE! This is crazy! Like Chestinee brought up HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO BE? Where were you during 911, during the crane collapse, during the street the blew up, during the OTHER plane that hit the apartment building. My friend was on a train during the black out he had to walk through a subway in his sandals, I was at work during 911 and during the blackout (why do I live here?-ha!) I had to walk home from MIDtown over the B-bridge and through BKLYN, if I would have had a bag at home, a lot of good that would have …

Again, the fact that preparedness will not save you in every scenario doesn’t mean it won’t help you in some scenario. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. We do plenty of things to lessen our risk and danger, even though they do not guarantee the total elimination of that risk or danger.

My participation in CERT and the team outfit was not convincing to  Lorenzo : “Sounds like a senile boy scout to me.” 

Or Craig:“I’m sorry to say it’s this kind of behavior that causes a lot of the world to think Americans are nuts…Well intended and, even useful, or not, the thought of him sitting there is his gear promoting his book is darkly comical sign of the times.”

I don’t mind being made fun of. I wouldn’t have risked wearing my goofy green CERT outfit into the studio if I did. But all I ask is after you parody preparedness also be willing to consider it on the merits.

Scott posted a question I often get. 

How do I plan to keep my cat and dog safe? Like if I have to evacuate? In New Orleans, people couldn’t bring their pets on the buses and so some people just stayed home.

As Hurricane Katrina vividly showed, pets need to be included in any kind of governmental emergency planning, because many people will not leave their animals even if it means risking all of their lives. The problem was that most emergency shelters did not have a capability to hold animals. That is changing with more shelters now including a separate area for pets. I would suggest you prepare your pet as you would any member of your household (make that pet ‘go bag) and check to see if the shelter in your area will have the capability to handle pets.

The question of emergency evacuation was raised by Glenn:

I kept a dry bag full of some essentials which could be inflated and used as a floatation device, and a wet suit near my front door after 9/11. This in case I had to jump in the Hudson River and swim (float) to NJ (with the tide).

One of the callers during the show had also mentioned, sheepishly, that she kept a rubber boat in her apartment in case of an emergency. (First, we have to change the idea that the most prepared people should be embarassed about doing it — that it is paranoid, uncool, fearful or selfish to be worried and do anything about it. The people who do think about preparing should be seen as the responsible ones. Because it’s true. The more prepared you are, the less likely it is that emergency responders will have to take care of you and be able help others. That’s called personal responsibility not paranoia.)

These types of questions underscore my feeling that there needs to be more information provided in advance about evacuation planning. Without doing so, people are left to do their own devices to determine their own plans and contingencies, some of which may not be realistic.

In New York, on 9/11, an ad hoc fleet played a major role in evacuating people from lower Manhattan. The City may likely have a similar need at some point in our future. There is an organization here, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, whose Board I serve on, which will be making waterborne emergency planning/information a focus of its policy work in the next year. I look forward to working on that and discussing it further on the blog.

Giving the public more information will help them become more self-sufficient when it comes to preparedness.

Mike was kind enough to post a link to a free online course/module from SUNY-Albany’s School of Public Health

I am always interested in seeing any new preparedness education methods so I went through the module online. It turns that the course is quite good. It’s easy to use, engaging and thoughtfully designed. It also uses potential emergency scenarios you might face, which helps people get into the necessary ’you are there’ mindset to think about what they would do. When you complete it, you and your family will be far more prepared than you were.

However, this module, through little fault of its own, shares some of the limitations of preparedness public education efforts. It cannot provide the localized, tailored information and then answers citizens want when they go through the preparedness process. The module’s suggestion that users ask their local emergency management office to fill in informational gaps is the right place to look, but it is unlikely that those folks will have the capacity or inclination to answer everyone’s questions. Similarly, the suggestion that people practice their evacuation plans makes sense but is not realistic. (Personally, I believe there should be community drills in which would help people rehearse their plans. To me, the bottom line is that is very difficult for individuals to prepare in a vacuum without more robust government information and guidance.

A perfect example of the need for more government support for individual initiative is the experience of Naomi whose email Brian read halfway through the segment:

i’m curious about what john solomon has to say re residential EP in high rise buildings. just spent 2 frustrating years trying to raise awareness in a 1,000-apartment co-op in manhattan. found OEM completely unavailable; something has to change!

In my response on air, I suggested that that Naomi try to contact her local CERT team and Community Board.

Naomi posted again: 

mr. solomon did not respond to my comment. brian, please, i’ve done all he suggests and OEM in NOT responsive. -naomi

When I read that post later in the day, I wanted a) to better answer her question and b) find out more about what happened. We spoke by phone later that evening. It turns out that Naomi’s effort is a perfect case study in the current challenge of public preparedness. 

Concerned about the number of home-bound elderly in her Harlem apartment complex, Naomi, 74, set out to try to set up an emergency preparedness program in the building. She created her own “Emergency Preparedness Survey” for her building and distributed it to every tenant. She found that 24% of the residents had a supply kit, but that 66% would attend an information/training session; 59% thought the building should have fire drills; and 86% thought there was a need to prepare children for an emergency. She also wrote and performed a puppet show, “So, What About The Stuff In Your Home?”, in the lobby for children and parents to generate interest. Yet, ultimately, despite the interest among her fellow residents, Naomi said she (and her co-chair) found the obstacles too big to do it. 

It may take a national commitment to preparedness — as we had for example during World War 2 — to address all of these obstacles. But there needs to be a way to make sure that if someone in a building in New York does as much as Naomi did those efforts do not go to waste.

I would love to hear any comments on these responses from the listeners or anyone else.